PISCATAWAY – When Kyle Flood invented the refrain that his program has turned into a cliché in less than three years, he did not have Sept. 6, 2014 in mind.

But a focus on being “1-0” has never been more important at Rutgers.

Just last week was an expectations-defying win against Washington State. The most anticipated game in school history arrives Sept. 13, when Penn State visits. Sandwiched in between is Saturday’s game against Howard – a FCS program coming off a 41-0 loss to Akron.

In other words, exactly the kind of opponent that could be overlooked if not for this line of thinking:

“This week, the most important thing is the opportunity to be 1-0,” Flood said last week, will say this week and has said pretty much every one of his 28 game weeks as a head coach.

The origins of the 1-0 mantra date back to the approach of Flood’s first season – one that ended in a 2012 Big East co-championship. Aware of the potential to accomplish big things, Flood sought a way for his players to avoid falling into a common trap.

“I really felt like we had a good football team and we were going to have success,” Flood told Gannett New Jersey. “Handling success, to me, is one of the hardest things a program does. I felt like … if we could get the team to have a singularity of focus, we’d have the opportunity to have a really good year. The players took to it. When you hear the players repeating it you know your message is getting across. In a game like football where you only play once a week, it really is the perfect expression.”

Back then, Flood typically reserved 1-0 for talking about winning gamedays. He eventually expanded its usage to good practices. Then, last month, when asked if it is a make-or-break year for him, Flood explained the team’s focus was to go 1-0 in its team picture after he was finished going 1-0 in his press conference.

“I think guys realize that after you play college football for a while it’s kind of the mentality you have to have,” quarterback Gary Nova said. “You can’t look ahead at anything. You can’t get complacent or can’t get comfortable. As soon as you do, you get beat or you lose confidence. You’ve really just got be 1-0. It’s kind of cliché. Coach says it all the time. Sometimes you’re like, ‘Uh oh, here it is.’ But it’s really true, and I think the guys on the team really embrace it, and the guys on the team are doing a great job of it.”

The scheming of offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen, the playmaking of Paul James and Leonte Carroo, the improved decision-making of Nova, and some timely defensive stops already have some national college football analysts rethinking their preseason predictions for Rutgers much to the delight of the fan base. Maybe a bowl berth isn’t outrageous.

“Where people get caught up in a lot things is when you look too far down the road and look at the big picture of things,” defensive tackle Darius Hamilton said. “Howard is coming in here with a very good running game, a very good quarterback, and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”

When asked about his reaction if hears any Penn State talk in the locker room this week, Hamilton continued, “You’ve got to shut it down. People have to take it one game at a time and take nothing for granted around here.”

While 1-0 may sound tired to media and fans, players only seem to embrace it more the more they hear it.

“When I was younger I kind of didn’t really understand it,” halfback Paul James said. “I was kind of like, ‘Ahh, yeah. 1-0. Yeah, OK.’ But now that I’m a more experienced player I understand it. It’s focus on the task at hand, which is the game we’re playing this week and even the day. I try to be 1-0 at practice.”

By now, it’s almost like there is an automated Flood voice running through James’ head at all times.

“You hear it so much that it kind of sets in. I’ll be saying it to myself and sometimes I don’t even notice,” said James, the offensive star against Washington State. “Maybe I had a bad play and I’m kind of down on myself. I’ll be like, ‘Alright, gotta be 1-0 today.’ That just comes to me and I won’t even notice.”

And yet tuning it out is never an option.

“I’m a firm believer in what Coach Flood says,” left tackle Keith Lumpkin said. “If he tells me to go run in the middle of (Route) 18 I would because he’s shown to be a great leader. Any slogan, any saying, I buy in. I’m all-in. I don’t get tired of it. If you are 1-0 on what you do on that day, who can beat you?”

Even accepting the premise behind the Coachspeak for exactly what it is doesn’t explain why Flood chose 1-0 over its more popular synonyms like taking things one game/day at a time or playing 12 one-game seasons.

For Flood, the reason is simple. It’s about more than just focus.

“I like 1-0 because at the end of that one game at a time I want to be 1-0,” Flood said. “If the scoreboard is on, the results matter. I think 1-0 means not only did we focus on it, but we achieved our goals.”